Memphis, Shelby County Trial and Verdict Statistics in Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Cases

It is Friday and we are covering verdict and trial statistics for the last of the largest four cities in Tennessee — Memphis/Shelby County, the Thirtieth Judicial District.

Last fiscal year, 1,747 new tort cases (lawsuits for personal injury or wrongful death) were filed in Shelby County courts and 1,817 were resolved. Shelby County had more trials than any other county in the State with 76 — 53 jury trials and 23 bench trials. Of those 76 trials, the injured party won 44 of the cases. In the other 32 cases, the injured party did not receive any compensation whatsoever.

In terms of verdicts, the total dollar amount awarded in all 44 trials was $10,891,198.00 for an average award of $247,527.00. The verdicts can be broken down even further: 37 of the trials resulted in verdicts of less than $100,000.00; 5 of the trials resulted in verdicts ranging between $100,000.00 to $999,999.99; and 2 of the trials resulted in verdicts that exceeded One Million Dollars. Obviously, a relatively small number of large verdicts had a significant impact on the average verdict figure.

Historically, Shelby County (Memphis) has been a good venue for injury victims. This year, Davidson County (Nashville) had a slightly higher average verdict but that was caused by one case which resulted in the largest verdict in the entire State for the year (the verdict was in excess of $13 million). However, the average Shelby County verdict was substantially higher than Knox County (Knoxville) or Hamilton County (Chattanooga).

The jurisdiction in which your injury case will be venued is one of a myriad of factors used to assess the value of your case. At the Law Offices of John Day, our award-winning lawyers represent people across the State of Tennessee and we carefully watch the verdicts and trial statistics for each county. If you have a question about your jurisdiction or would like to discuss your injury case, call us anytime at 615-742-4880 or toll-free at 866-812-8787 or simply fill out this form for a no-fee, no-obligation consultation.